How does Dickens intend to educate the reader through Scrooge's redemption and reflective journey in A Christmas Carol?

Dickens intends for readers to
think about how they treat their loved ones and fellow humans, and learn to care more about
them.

In we experience a journey of redemption.  Scrooge is
described as a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! (ch
1, p. 5)  He is a miserable human being who does not care about anyone or anything.  Yet there
are people in his life who care about him and would like to make him part of their
lives.

Jacob Marleys ghost tells Scrooge what is required of every man (or
human).

[The] spirit within him should walk abroad among
his fellowmen, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is
condemned to do so after death. (ch 1, p. 14)

Scrooge
shrugs off this warning until he gets visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past, who shows him that
he was not always alone and miserable.  Scrooges journey back to the hopeful young boy he once
was slowly makes him see his own life in a different way.  His fianc© Fran releases him from
their contract to marry.

You maythe memory of what is
past half makes me hope you will have pain in this. €¦. May you be happy in the life you have
chosen! (ch 2, p. 26)

Dickens populates the tale with
memorable characters, such as Scrooges clerk Bob Crachit and his nephew Fred.  Yet no character
is intended to pull at our heart strings as much as Crachits son Tiny Tim.

Alas for Tiny Tim, he bore a little crutch, and had his limbs
supported by an iron frame! (ch 3, p. 32)

Although the
description of the little boy drips with sentimentality, Tim is afor the poor and hungry, the
surplus.  The Ghost of Christmas Present chastises Scrooge harshly for suggesting that not
feeding the poor will decrease the surplus population.

[Forbear] that wicked cant until you have discovered What the surplus is, and Where it
is. Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die? (ch 3, p. 34)

In the end, Scrooge is reformed.  He has had an opportunity to
reflect on his life, and determine the kind of person he wants to be.  He decides he wants to be
warm and kind.  He wants to have people in his life who care about him.  He does not want to die
alone.  Dickens wants the reader to reconsider his or her own life and come to the same
decision.